How CTI Powered ESHG 2025 to Unprecedented Hybrid Success

*Image courtesy of the ESHG team

The world of scientific congresses is constantly changing, with a growing demand for experiences that seamlessly bridge the gap between physical and virtual participants. For organizations in the field, delivering a meeting of such scale successfully requires not only robust technology, but also a deep understanding of complex logistical needs.

In this article, we explore how CTI’s innovative solutions and dedicated support enabled the European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) host their groundbreaking and impactful hybrid annual meeting in 2025.

The Client: European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) – A Pillar of Genetic Science

The European Society of Human Genetics (ESHG) is an outstanding non-profit organization in the global genetics community, founded in 1967. Dedicated to promoting research, facilitating communication, and fostering education in all areas of human genetics, ESHG’s annual meeting is a pivotal event. It serves as a key platform for the exchange of cutting-edge scientific discoveries, fostering collaboration, and shaping the future of genetic medicine. Attracting thousands of leading researchers, clinicians, and industry professionals from across the globe, the ESHG meeting is renowned for its comprehensive scientific program and its commitment to advancing human health through genetics.

In 2025, the ESHG once again demonstrated its leadership by bringing together nearly 6,900 registrants for its annual meeting in Milan, Italy. With both onsite and virtual participation options available, 4,600 attendees joined online. Featuring almost 200 scientific sessions and a record-breaking 3,500 abstract and late-breaking submissions (with approximately 3,000 accepted), the 2025 congress solidified ESHG’s position as one of Europe’s leading medical congresses in the field.

The Challenge: Navigating the Complexities of a Large-Scale Hybrid Scientific Congress

Organizing an event of ESHG’s magnitude and scientific depth, especially in a fully hybrid format, presents a myriad of challenges. The core needs and pain points faced by the ESHG team prior to partnering with CTI centered around creating a cohesive, accessible, and engaging experience for all attendees, regardless of their location.

1. One of the primary concerns of this type of meetings is the fragmentation of data and systems. Managing membership, registration, abstract submissions, speaker information, and session scheduling across multiple platforms can lead to inefficiencies, data inconsistencies, and a poor user experience. ESHG needed a unified system that could seamlessly integrate these critical functions, simplifying management for their team and streamlining access for participants.
2. Furthermore, with a substantial portion of attendees participating virtually, ensuring a truly synchronized hybrid experience was paramount. This wasn’t just about streaming sessions; it involved replicating the interactivity, networking opportunities, and information accessibility that onsite attendees enjoyed. The challenge lay in providing high-quality, reliable live streaming and on-demand content, coupled with features that fostered engagement for remote participants. The ability to handle unexpected surges in virtual attendance, such as overflow streaming, was also a critical consideration.
3. Operational control and efficiency were also key pain points. The ESHG team sought to empower themselves with the ability to self-configure and manage various aspects of the congress, reducing reliance on external support for day-to-day operations. This would not only enhance their agility but also optimize resource allocation.
4. Compliance with evolving regulations, specifically the EU VAT rules added another layer of complexity to the registration process. ESHG required a system that could automatically adjust tax based on country of residence, participation type, and B2B/B2C status, ensuring full regulatory adherence.
5. Finally, for an event rich in scientific content, maximizing the reach and impact of presentations and posters was crucial. This meant not only managing a vast number of submissions and sessions but also finding innovative ways to highlight key research and facilitate interaction between authors and attendees, both virtually and in person.

In summary, ESHG needed a partner that could provide a comprehensive, scalable, and intuitive solution to manage every part of their hybrid congress, all while ensuring a seamless and engaging experience for their diverse audience.

The CTI Solution: A Unified Ecosystem for Seamless Event Management

CTI stepped in as the strategic partner, offering a holistic suite of solutions designed to address ESHG’s specific needs for their annual meeting. CTI’s approach was a powerful combination of intuitive self-service software, expert-managed services, and robust on-site infrastructure, creating a truly integrated ecosystem for the ESHG 2025 congress.

1. Unified Membership and Registration: One System, One Login

At the core of CTI’s solution was the integrated Registration and Membership Platform. Ahead of the congress, CTI meticulously migrated ESHG’s membership data into this platform, establishing a single source of truth for all participant information. This enabled single sign-on, a game-changer for user experience. With one login, attendees and members gained streamlined access across all services, including:

• Membership self-service application: Allowing organizers to manage their profiles, download certificates and invoices, access real-time statistics, and track email communication effortlessly.
• Registration system with dynamic fee rules: This intelligent system automatically applied reduced fees based on membership type and was meticulously configured to reflect the new EU VAT rules (effective January 2025). This ensured automatic tax adjustments based on country of residence, participation type (onsite/online), and B2B/B2C status, guaranteeing full compliance and eliminating manual complexities.
• Immediate access to the Participant Portal and Virtual Platform (cAttendee): Upon successful registration, attendees gained instant access to all necessary resources, ensuring a smooth onboarding experience.

Furthermore, cAdmin served as the central hub for tracking all registered participants and presenters. This comprehensive oversight allowed the ESHG office to cross-reference data efficiently and follow up as needed—for example, identifying presenters who hadn’t yet registered, thus preventing last-minute logistical hurdles.

2. Self-Configured Modules with Operational Control

Embracing CTI’s SaaS model, the ESHG team was empowered to self-configure and operate a wide array of modules, gaining unprecedented operational control and reducing their reliance on external support. This included:

• cAdmin: For global settings and comprehensive user tracking, providing a clear overview of all event participants.
• Participant Portal: Offering a seamless and intuitive interface for user access to all event-related information and functionalities.
• Abstract Submission and Review: A streamlined system that managed 3,500 abstract submissions, ensuring a fair and efficient review process.
• Session Building Admin: Facilitating the organization and scheduling of nearly 200 diverse scientific sessions with ease.
• Speaker and Chair Management: Supporting over 200 chairs and 125 invited speakers, bolstered by targeted communication via Campaigns.
• Reporting tools: Providing valuable insights to track engagement and performance, enabling data-driven decision-making for future events.

This level of self-management significantly reduced time-to-action for the ESHG team, fostering agility and responsiveness in their event planning.

3. Hybrid Delivery at Scale: Onsite + Online Excellence

CTI’s commitment to a truly hybrid experience extended to comprehensive onsite services, ensuring a smooth and professional delivery that matched the virtual offering. This included:

• Onsite Presentation Management: With a fully staffed Speaker Ready Room and a dedicated Session Room Application, we ensured that all presentations ran seamlessly, providing peace of mind for both speakers and organizers.
• Recording and streaming in 12 parallel rooms: This monumental effort provided live access to all sessions for virtual attendees, creating a truly synchronized hybrid experience that mirrored the in-person event.
• Overflow streaming: A critical feature that ensured all interested attendees, whether onsite or online, could follow sessions without interruption even when physical rooms reached capacity.
• Remote speaker support: Allowing presenters to participate regardless of their geographical location, broadening the scope of scientific contributions.
• Post-production turnaround of all recorded sessions: Making on-demand content available within a remarkable 24 hours, ensuring continuous access to valuable scientific information.

Beyond the core session delivery, CTI also provided essential onsite infrastructure, including:

• Onsite Registration: With hardware setup, including self-service badge printing stations, streamlining the arrival process for attendees.
• Lead retrieval for exhibitors: Empowering exhibitors to capture valuable leads efficiently, maximizing their return on investment.
• Caching server infrastructure: Optimizing onsite data handling and ensuring rapid access to information for all participants.

4. Engaging Interactivity and Content Amplification

Understanding that interactivity is key to a successful conference, CTI integrated tools that fostered engagement for all participants:

• Polling for Increased Interactivity: Select sessions integrated live polling, designed by the scientific program committee and delivered via CTI’s intuitive tools. Onsite and online attendees could simply scan a QR code to vote, creating a more dynamic and educational experience.
• Spotlight on Posters: ePoster stations were strategically set up onsite, with dedicated times to highlight “Best Posters.” This provided authors with additional visibility and actively encouraged valuable in-person interaction and discussion around the presented research.

The cAttendee Virtual Platform proved to be instrumental throughout the entire congress lifecycle:

• Pre-congress: Its calendar view was activated well in advance, keeping attendees informed as the program evolved and generating interest in upcoming content.
• During the event: It served as the central hub for live and on-demand session access, providing a user-friendly interface for navigating the rich scientific program.
• Post-event: It continued to provide access to valuable content, extending the learning experience beyond the physical meeting.

5. CTI-Managed Services for Key Components

While ESHG leveraged CTI’s self-service capabilities. Our team also provided comprehensive full-service support for critical components, ensuring seamless execution of complex functionalities:

• Presentation Management: For both scientific and corporate sessions, ensuring smooth content delivery.
• The Virtual Platform (cAttendee): Including the robust calendar and ePoster gallery, vital for content dissemination and navigation.
• CME and Presenter Certificates: Streamlining the issuance of essential documentation for continuing medical education and speaker recognition.
• Corporate session support: Via the Presentation Management module, allowing session organizers to manage their content independently.
• Onsite registration infrastructure: Including self-scanning and badge printing stations, optimizing attendee flow.
• Lead scanning: For exhibitors and industry sessions, facilitating lead capture and business development.

A Highlight from the Event: The Seamless Fusion of Onsite and Online Engagement

Perhaps one of the most remarkable highlights of ESHG 2025 was the level of seamless integration between the onsite and online experiences. The ability to record and stream in 12 parallel rooms simultaneously, coupled with real-time overflow streaming when physical rooms reached capacity, ensured that no attendee, regardless of their physical location or the popularity of a session, was ever excluded from the scientific discourse.

Quote from ESHG:

ESHG Executive Officer, Jerome del Picchia, has kindly provided some thoughts about our long-standing collaboration:

“The ESHG has cooperated with CTI Meeting Technology since 2001, as online abstract submission platform provider at the time and we are delighted that we moved even closer in 2025, gathering association management, abstract submission, conference registration and online hybrid platform under a Single Sign On, greatly increasing the experience of our audience, as well as simplifying processes at our end. Especially remarkable at this year’s hybrid conference was the quality of the live-stream with practically no issues over the entire meeting.

I can only emphasize CTI’s high professionalism, their reliability and their focus on delivering the best experience for both their client and their participants. CTI’s products have been and still are developed based on the needs of their clients while staying sharp on the newest developments in the field. With the help of CTI we were able to deliver the most attended and successful ESHG conference in 2025.”

Conclusion: Setting a New Standard for Scientific Congresses

ESHG 2025 in Milan was more than just a meeting; it was a testament to the power of innovation and collaboration in advancing scientific exchange. CTI empowered ESHG to offer a high-impact, user-friendly congress experience, no matter where participants joined from. The unified platform eliminated silos, streamlined operations, and provided ESHG with the control and flexibility needed to manage an event of this scale. The robust hybrid delivery ensured that the scientific knowledge shared reached a wider audience than ever before, fostering greater accessibility and inclusivity within the human genetics community.

Are you ready to elevate your next event to a new level of success? Do you envision a seamless, engaging, and impactful experience for your attendees, whether they join in person or remotely?

Discover how our integrated solutions, expert support, and commitment to innovation can transform your event into a truly unforgettable experience. Book your free demo today.